Astrology and Christianity

By Antonia ffoulkes-Shippy, Yahoo! Contributor Network

It is a respectable estimate that zodiacs are found in 80% of medieval churches. This may surprise modern Christians warned against what the Catholic Church calls the "new paganism." The trouble is that
 even churchmen of old, dedicated to stamping out heathen custom, could not deny the presence of stars and planets and the more scientifically suspect idea of their influencing the motions of animals, vegetables, and minerals. The old adage "God rules the stars; the stars rule man." supported the idea that God alone had the final word when it came to celestial influence though such influence did exist.
The other factor in the puzzle of Christian use of zodiacs is that to people living without the organizing guidance of clocks and calendars, zodiacs imposed a system of organized time. Not only were months and days assigned to planetary ruers but the regular slices of time we call hours. Hence the "horoscope," literally 'examination of the hour' charted the position of heavenly bodies at a specific point in time.
There is also, in the depiction of the twelve astrological signs, a heavy unstated link to themes expressed in Ecclesiastes. "Time(s) for all things under heaven," are portrayed within each sign from the tilling of the soil in Aquarius' to the harvesting of the crop in Virgo. Even the common practice of blood letting was directed by the position of the Moon, in particular, due to its power to influence fluids.There is no doubt that medieval people held strongly to the idea, and practicality, of different times favoring different activity. The so-called "Labors of the Month" are commonly found proximal to illustrations of the heavenly band.
From the 9th to the 15th century, the zodiac is a common architectural motif in European churches, It is surprising to find stunning representations of zodiacs in synagogues of the first and second centuries, Common
 Era. Moreover, he greatest Islamic scholars wrote extensively on the influence of the stars and depiction of the constellations can be found on Islamic artifacts up until the eleventh century. It is clear that ancient people of every faith were awed by the majesty of the heavens as proof of divine power.